For the first time since 1949, the United States exported more gasoline, heating oil and diesel
fuel last year than it imported, the Energy Department reported Feb 29, and imports of crude oil
fell to a level not seen since 1995. Such advances in the United States, along with recent
discoveries in Latin America of vast gas reserves in shale formations, subsalt oil deposits and
renewable energy resources, have led some analysts argue that the global energy map is shifting
from the Middle East to the Western Hemisphere. Is the "world's oil map" shifting away from the
Middle East? What would be the implications of greater energy independence in the United
States and the countries of the Western Hemisphere? Will energy cooperation—or energy
conflict—come to dominate headlines in the Americas in years to come?